54 l June 2012
www.prosoundnewseurope.com
livefeature
Maryland Sound – the first rental house in the USA to buy a JBL VTX system – used the rig at the 'White House Easter Egg Roll', no less
international business development for Coda, observes that all sizes of PA system are still relevant today. “We have seen a rash of new big system already this year,” he says, “but we have also seen a large number of mid-sized new releases. This indicates that both big and mid-sized systems are very much in need globally.” A key influence in this has been the international economic situation. This has finally made itself felt on the music industry, which was previously mostly immune to it. “With global markets all suffering the difficulties of current financial situations, we are seeing a rise in smaller applications,” comments Anderson. “That said, there will always be big tours, festivals and special events, all of which will require big system formats, so we do not think there will be an end to this but maybe a reduction in the amount needed.” Werner ‘Vier’ Bayer of d&b audiotechnik’s product management department, says whether or not there is enough work for new big line arrays is a complicated question. “With the ongoing requests for the J-Series we think it is currently at the zenith
of its lifecycle and can cope with most applications,” he says. “On the other hand one also has to evaluate the entertainment industry as a whole, which has faced good ticket sales at a rather good price level in the last half decade. But in the current market I personally would not feel that comfortable in having to establish other bigger and louder line arrays.” This note of caution is echoed by Paul Bauman, senior manager for tour sound at JBL Professional. “In my opinion, the trend is for improved performance in a lightweight, compact form with higher power density,” he says, adding this was
the intention behind the VTX V25. VTX was launched at
NAMM 2012 and is a large- format system designed for touring and corporate AV presentations, as well as fixed installation. It is starting to make inroads into Europe, with Belgian hire company AED buying in the region of 300 V25
top elements. Bauman describes the V25 as “smaller but better than bigger”. Ewan McDonald,
applications engineer with Adamson Systems Engineering, also does not see the trend being for bigger systems these days. “People want more efficient systems that are lightweight, can go up and down in the smallest amount of time and take the least amount of truck space possible,” he says. McDonald “absolutely” sees a connection between this move towards more compact but still
NEXO STM SERIES
All manufacturers have to face the often-daunting task of following a successful and popular product with either a new version or a completely new model. Nexo had marked out a sizeable portion of the touring system market with its Alpha range but, according to concert sound specialist Stuart Kerrison, the manufacturer had realised the live sound scene was changing, largely due to financial pressures on artists and the music business in general. When Nexo started talking
“The trend is for improved
performance in a lightweight, compact form with higher power density” Paul Bauman, JBL Professional
to rental companies two years ago the general consensus was for a system that could be used in a variety of venues, not just arenas. “We had close consultation with people in the industry,” Kerrison explains, “and they gave us their views on what a new system should do – but not what it should be. “The whole line array thing became very application specific. What we’ve come to realise after two years of research for the STM is that rental companies are not so bothered about the technical specifications, which we started discussing first, but whether they can make any money out of it. They don’t want to have three or four different PA systems in stock, none of which is working all the time. With budgets dropping but more money going to the lighting and video on a production audio companies are very worried because this situation is not sustainable.” He explains that Nexo’s aim
was to create “a modern Alpha system”, which he explains made sense because the basic requirements of being able to fly and stack it were already there. “A lot of companies had
powerful cabinets and the financial state of the music business but feels there is more to it than that: “For sound companies, having many different types of cabinets is not an efficient way to run a sound company. Having one box that can go from a theatre to an arena is a big advantage. But everything comes at a cost. Adamson has always been about sonic quality over anything else – so a small, economical box that compromises large-scale performance is not what we want as our flagship product.”
BUILDING BLOCKS Nexo’s STM will still lay claim to the big system market, but it takes what the manufacturer’s concert sound specialist Stuart Kerrison describes as a building block, “Lego” approach, making it suitable for small and medium-sized gigs as well. STM is based on distinct
boxes that can be built up into different sized systems for a variety of concert and venue types. “People should be able to cover 99.9% of applications with this,” Kerrison comments. “The companies certainly want this
The STM Series: A modern Alpha syste,
made a lot of money out of Alpha so we looked at taking the basic concept and incorporating it into something new but at the same time bringing different ideas, rather than copying the same format.” The result of this research and
development was the STM Series, comprising the M46 main cabinet, B112 bass, S118 sub bass and M28 ‘omni’ fill units. The main, bass and omni boxes are injection moulded, a first for Nexo. The M46 features 4 x 6.5” LF/MF drivers and 4 x HF compression drivers; the B112
has 1 x 3,000W +/-3cm excursion 12” LF driver; the S118 a 1 x 18” LF driver; and the omni box 2 x 8” LF drivers, 4 x 4” MF drivers and 1 x HF compression driver. The system has been engineered to produce good horizontal dispersion with full range from each component. These hang side-by-side on a specially designed rigging system that enables cabinets to be flown quickly. It is currently undergoing trials with rental companies in the UK and US, with the launch planned for PLASA 2012.
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